My education at Lake State taught me not only the basics of exercise science and health and wellness but prepared me for my future research career. I became involved in national organizations, improved my networking skills to create working relationships, and ended up with an amazing paid internship that turned into a 3-year research professional position at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, GA. Now in graduate school pursuing a doctorate degree at Virginia Tech, I rely on the knowledge I acquired at Lake State and put it to practice daily while discussing health-related topics in class or conducting obesity and inflammation research in our laboratory.